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About Marapur, a treatise by Timira the Philosopher
Our home Marapur lies south of Roshamuul, in a part of the ocean dominated by warm currents. The climate is thus tropically warm and rather humid. The island itself consists of some higher mountains but is otherwise mostly covered by jungle and submerged lush grass. Two-leg visitors often compare it with a breaking ice floe, which is very slowly but steadily flooded by the water of the surrounding ocean. This causes it to fray at the edges, where you can spot smaller islands and archipelagos in the water.
The rising of the water and the flooding of the island began centuries ago and progresses very slowly. As a result, we - the nagas - are not forced to flee nor do we try to stop the water. We refer to this process as "the Rising" and parts of us have accepted it and integrated it into our culture and way of life. The so-called coastal nagas adapt to living with the water and take advantage of its benefits instead of resisting it. At the beginning of the Rising, they still made great efforts to push the water back and keep it away from the island. In the meantime, however, the coast folk in particular has accepted that the water and the land coalesce more and more. While the mountain nagas do not reject water, they experience it mainly in the form of wells and waterfalls. The coastal nagas accept it as a part of their lives and even a part of themselves. Their connection to water and the sea is incomparably stronger than that of the mountain folk. Buildings in the coastal regions are now either submerged completely or rise out of the water only partially. Nevertheless, these buildings are often still used, and the nagas travel back and forth between them on small boats. There are also paths laid across the water, often made of large lily pads. They are floating on the waves easily and at the same time they are stable enough for a naga to glide over them as if on solid ground. There is, however, another group: the mountain nagas, who live in the mountainous regions that have not yet been affected by the Rising. Because of this, there are some cultural differences, for example in terms of religious customs, diet and lifestyle. The two factions are not openly hostile to each other, but there is some tension.
Since millennia, naga buildings are predominantly made of reddish-brown, baked bricks and often carefully ornamented and decorated. In addition to smaller residential buildings, there are magnificent temple complexes and palaces. Those soar upwards and often form multi-storey towers. Different city parts of Moonfall are connected by bridges. Decorations in the form of snakes or serpentine dragons are characteristic of our architecture and wave-shaped elements represent the omnipresent water. Sculptures of snakes and dragons can be found in many places in the city but also statues of famous personalities from our history. On the coast, many of the buildings are partially or even completely submerged in water. However, as the water rises very slowly, the upper floors of the half-sunken buildings are still used by the coastal nagas. The buildings, but also entire islands, are connected by paths made of lily pads, and there is a lively traffic of small boats between these individual islets.
